by PP Corcoran
“On the plus side, I am authorizing shore leave on Earth for all crew members. I think that two weeks should be sufficient, effective immediately.” Everyone around the table smiled at this news. “Dismissed!” Vadis turned and made his way towards the hatch leading to his private office, only to stop as Wilson made to follow him. “That shore leave includes you, Elizabeth. You’ve been stuck on this rock with me for long enough. Go and visit the family or take a break somewhere warm.”
“Why, thank you, Admiral. It has been some time since I was home.”
Vadis noticed that behind Elizabeth the Briefing Room was emptying, except for Robert Lewis waiting patiently. “I think Captain Lewis wants a word with you.”
Elizabeth turned around and faced Lewis, who was rubbing his hands nervously.
“Commander Wilson, as the Admiral has authorized shore leave for you as well, I was wondering if you had ever visited New Zealand?”
Elizabeth felt her cheeks reddening like a schoolchild. Control yourself, she thought. You are a grown woman, for Pete’s sake. “I can’t say I have, Robert. But it’s a place I always meant to visit.”
“Perhaps we could discuss it some, over coffee,” said a smiling Robert as Elizabeth led them out of the door.
As the office door sealed behind them, Vadis regarded the seated figure of Adm. Jing. He moved across the room to join him, “So what do you think, Ai?”
Vadis and Jing had been friends for as long as either of them could remember, but where Vadis had moved in the shadowy circles of intelligence, Jing had always been in the command line. He had progressed up the chain of command in the relatively small Terran Navy, with turns at the Naval Academy teaching tactics, until he found himself as head of the Naval Strategy Board. And, if what Vadis was hearing on the grapevine was correct, Ai was to be the next Head of the Joint Chiefs on the retirement of Gen. Joyce.
Jing leaned forward, placed his elbows on the table, and interlocked the fingers of both hands, a position that Vadis remembered as Jing’s thinking pose from the many occasions that two young officers had sat late into the night discussing the strategic and tactical problems set by the instructors at the Naval Academy.
“All the data from the Vanguards is being collated and analysed by the Strategy Board. I think I can safely say that there will be many worried people back home. The existence of another spacefaring civilization in ‘The Baldies’ at their current level of development poses no immediate threat to Earth, but the fact remains that we now have irreconcilable proof that ‘The Others’ are out there and they are capable of traveling between the stars. A worrying development,” Jing stated.
Vadis nodded his head slowly in agreement. “So do we move forward with phase two of Chrysaor?”
“I think it would be only prudent, Aleksandr. The initial planning is in place. Gen. Joyce has given his blessing for me to start scouting for a suitable base of operations in nearby star systems, and if you could attach two of your Vanguards to Chrysaor then I’ll get to work”
Vadis thought for a moment. “Okay. When Captains Papadomas and Lewis return from shore leave, you can have TDF Jacques Cartier and TDF James Cook. Now, perhaps we can discuss how we are going to sell Chrysaor to the politicians back in the Senate.”
Jing looked at his friend with a wrinkled brow, “By telling them the truth.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Full Disclosure
Office of the President of the Terran Republic - Geneva - Earth
Rebecca Coston sat at the head of the conference table in her private office with an air of apprehension. Arrayed around the table were Senator Gillian Rae, Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, Senator Geoffrey Rawson, Secretary of Defence, Senator Thomas Crothers, Secretary of Finance. Gen. Joyce, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was accompanied by Admirals Vadis and Jing. Dr Jeff Moore and finally Dr Patricia Bath, Head of Linguistics at Stickney Base, made up the group.
This select gathering had been at the request of Gen. Joyce. It was he that Rebecca turned to first. “General, I and my staff have had the opportunity to review the information brought back by Admiral Vadis’ survey missions. I can tell you that it has the top echelons of the government frightened. The discovery that ‘The Others’ are still out there, the possibility of another star-traveling race, and another race that are beginning to colonize planets within their own system, who may be on the verge of discovering star travel for themselves, and yet another race who are at the brink of their own industrial revolution.”
Rebecca indicated Jeff Moore. “When Dr Moore invented the Gravity Drive some seven years ago, we thought it promised us the means to explore the stars at our leisure. Who could have thought that we would find the Rubicon Cave and all that followed on from there?” Rebecca paused for a moment. “The discovery of the Saiph changed our understanding of not only the universe around us, but of ourselves and our own origins. It came as a huge mental blow to the general population. I now understand more than ever why President McMullen urged me to keep Operation Minerva a secret for as long as I could. Once it was general knowledge, I was surprised at the reaction from the public. Yes, they were annoyed that we had kept the operation secret, but there was also a groundswell of support for the operation and its goals. The public wanted to know if any of the other planets that the Saiph had visited had survived and prospered as we have.”
Rebecca now settled her gaze on Joyce. If he expected to railroad her into silence then he had another thing coming.
“So before you begin, General, you need to know that I have no intention of keeping the results of Admiral Vadis’ surveys secret. The people have the right to know, and it is my intention to go onto the floor of the Senate tomorrow and inform them of the survey findings.”
Gen. Keyton Joyce had been a marine for nearly thirty-five years and in all that time he couldn’t remember anyone who had a more resolute look in their eyes than Rebecca Coston at that moment. “Madam President, that is exactly what I and the Joint Chiefs want you to do.”
Rebecca opened her mouth, ready to argue with her top general, when she realized what he had just said. “Excuse me, General. You want me to tell all?”
Joyce smiled. “Yes, ma’am. It’s important that the citizens understand the full nature of the threat that we face and the actions that we will have to take to counteract that threat.”
This was not the reaction that Rebecca had expected; however, she had been a politician a long time and recovered quickly. “What actions would they be, General?”
“The reason I asked for this meeting today, Madam President, was to go over an operation that Admiral Vadis and Admiral Jing conceived and that has been running in conjunction with Operation Minerva. We call it Operation Chrysaor.”
Rebecca looked accusingly at Secretary Rawson. “Where you aware of this, Geoffrey? And if you were, you better have a very good excuse for not letting me know about it!”
Geoffrey Rawson was a career politician and knew how to play the blame game. “I was aware of the operation, Madam President, but I was assured by Gen. Joyce that it was only a planning exercise. I had no idea it was anything more.” And with that, he redirected the President’s anger onto the military men.
“Well, General?” demanded Rebecca.
Joyce took a moment to look at Geoffrey as if he was something unpleasant that he had found on the bottom of his shoe before turning back to the President. “Ma’am, the aim of Operation Chrysaor was four fold: firstly, to analyse the information being returned by the survey ships. Secondly, to identify any threats to Earth by that analysis. Thirdly, to devise a strategy to counter these threats and finally to implement that strategy.” Joyce nodded to Jing. “Admiral Jing, albeit hard for the marine in me to acknowledge, is the foremost tactician that the Terran Defence Force has, and he has been running Operation Chrysaor.”
“Thank you for your confidence in my abilities, General,” Jing said by way of response.
“I would ask him to revi
ew his findings. Admiral?” Joyce sat down as Jing stood to address the group. Jing could feel the eyes of all present focus on him.
“Madam President, ladies and gentlemen. If I could take the first and second aims of Operation Chrysaor in conjunction. In analysing the information returned by the survey ships and employing the work of Dr Bath in decrypting the Rubicon Saiph database we were able to compare the two and look for either similarities or discrepancies. As far as the threat posed by the civilizations in 31 Aquilae and Messier 54 are concerned, without further intelligence that threat cannot be fully assessed; but the fact that neither have star travel leads me to categorize any threat they may present to Earth at present as minimal.”
“That’s reassuring at least,” said Rebecca.
Jing nodded. “Agreed, Madam President. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of whoever built the surveillance platform found in 31 Aquilae. It proves that they are capable of star travel, and yet we have no idea as to their intentions. It would be prudent to take what precautions we can, although, on the other hand, we have as yet no reason to believe they are hostile. As to the confirmed existence of ‘The Others’, that, to use a sporting analogy, is a game changer.”
“In what way, Admiral?” asked Rebecca.
“If I could ask Dr Bath to explain, ma’am.”
Rebecca looked down the table at the linguist. “Doctor?”
Dr Patricia Bath cleared her throat before continuing. “Madam President, as you know the Saiph database provided us with a massive amount of information, so much so that we were forced to prioritize. It was decided that our first priority was to discover what happened to the Saiph and why they lost their conflict with ‘The Others’.”
“But I thought it was because they were simply vastly outnumbered?” interjected Senator Rawson.
“That’s true,” agreed Patricia. “But what we discovered during our research explains why they were so outnumbered.”
“Go on, Doctor,” urged Rebecca.
“Although the Saiph were able to travel between the stars, it would appear that they did not have any colony worlds. Yes, they visited other worlds and established research bases on some; but the vast bulk of the Saiph population remained on the home world. They had a stable population and saw no need to invest in colonies. The Saiph had been at peace with themselves for thousands of years. Add that to the fact that they had never come across another star-traveling civilization since they had begun to explore the nearby stars and you can imagine how much of a shock it was to them when a fleet of warships, warships that we now know belonged to ‘The Others’, arrived in the Saiph home system. The Saiph attempted to establish contact but the warships remained silent. They moved into orbit and began bombarding their home world. After so long at peace, the Saiph had no significant weaponry to fight back. Those Saiph that survived the destruction headed for the research bases, but ‘The Others’ simply followed them, began destroying them as well. A few Saiph ships managed to escape. It was they who planned to tailor the DNA in the seventeen star systems listed in the database. They knew that, with their limited numbers, their race was doomed to extinction. They did what they could to make sure that some part of them survived. Scattered around the star systems they visited, they left databases, like the one we found on Rubicon, in the hope that one day one of their protégés would find it and be able to use it to defend itself from ‘The Others’.”
As Patricia retook her seat, Jing stood.
“Madam President. This brings me onto the third aim of Operation Chrysaor: to devise a strategy to counter the perceived threats. If ‘The Others’ were to appear in the Solar System tomorrow, we would find ourselves in the same position as the Saiph. We have no established colonies outside our own star system.” He indicated the Chairman and Vadis. “Our main goal must be the survival of the human race. We see the easiest way to do this, in the short term, is the immediate establishment of self-sufficient colonies within our own solar system. We already know that there are planets out there, such as Planet II of 70 Ophiuchi, which will sustain human life and have no indigenous intelligent species of their own.”
“But Admiral, isn’t that where Captain Radford encountered ‘The Others’?” interjected Rebecca.
“Yes, ma’am. But they can’t be everywhere. The Baldies of Messier 54 are an example of that.” Jing activated the Holo Cube and a star chart appeared hovering over the centre of the table. “This is a diagram of what’s known as the Local Bubble, a region within sixteen point three light years of Earth. Within this bubble, in addition to our own solar system, there are fifty-five stellar systems. Within these systems, there is a total of fifty-six hydrogen-fusing stars. Despite their relative closeness to us, only thirteen per cent can be viewed with the naked eye. Besides the Sun, only three are first magnitude stars: Alpha Centauri, Sirius and Procyon. Admiral Vadis has already consented to two of the Vanguard survey ships being seconded to Operation Chrysaor. It is my intention, at the earliest opportunity, to send them as a pair, in case of mishap or an encounter with ‘The Others’, to scout these three systems for a suitable world on which to establish a human colony.”
Rebecca caught the eye of Gillian Rae, who nodded her approval. “Okay, Admiral. I can see the sense in your approach, and I thereby approve the sending of the two survey ships. But the logistics behind establishing a colony are massive, never mind the expense.” In her peripheral vision, she saw Thomas Crothers’ gaze fixed on the image in the Holo Cube. The President could also see the financial planning involved in the establishment of the colony running through his mind. A plan began to form in her own head as to whom she should entrust with the planning for the colony. The party leaders are not going to like it, she thought. She could see that Jing was waiting for her permission to continue. “Please go on, Admiral.”
“Yes, ma’am. Secondly, in conjunction with Science and Technology, we need to begin a crash program into weapons research.”
Senator Rawson tried to hide a grin at that news as he considered the extra power and influence he was about to gain. Jing chose to ignore him.
“The designs held in the Saiph database are untried in real life. They only exist as technical drawings. With their main industrial base destroyed on the home world, the Saiph never got a chance to build them, let alone try them. We need to incorporate their technology into ours – faster than we have been doing. Dr Moore and his team have been working miracles but we need to expand his team, as rapidly as possible, to exploit the advantages of the Saiph technology.”
Rebecca turned to Senator Rae. “Well, Gillian? Can we do it?”
Geoffrey Rawson made a small coughing noise. “Madam President, surely the exploitation of the Saiph weapon technology would best be handled by Defence?”
Rebecca was beginning to regret allowing the party to force Rawson on her as Secretary for Defence.
“May I suggest a joint research and development team: Science and Technology to do the research and building while Defence review and prioritize the research and carry out testing,” suggested Senator Rae.
“Sounds like a good plan,” said Rebecca, smiling at Senator Rae and realizing that the good senator hadn’t lost her head for politics.
Senator Rawson looked rather crestfallen. “Yes... Madam President.”
“Good, that’s that sorted. Anything else, Admiral?”
“Just three more things, ma’am. We need to halt forthwith the surveys being conducted by Admiral Vadis and Operation Minerva.”
That surprised Rebecca. “But why, Admiral? Surely it’s more important than ever to find out what happened to the remaining worlds the Saiph visited?”
“That’s true, Madam President. However, by sending survey ships to known star systems that the Saiph have visited, it increases the chance of an encounter with ‘The Others’. In turn, this increases the chance that they discover the location of Earth, and, as I discussed earlier, we cannot afford for that to happen until we are sure we can handle t
hem.”
Forced to agree, Rebecca reluctantly nodded and replied, “Understood and agreed, Admiral. Next?”
“If we are to assess the full threat that ‘The Others’ pose to us, we require good, sound intelligence. Currently, all we have is the contents of the Saiph database. Having discussed it with the Joint Chiefs, we are in agreement that we should employ the two remaining Vanguards to insert a Marine Force Reconnaissance team onto Planet II of 70 Ophiuchi to observe and report back on ‘The Others’ base there.”
“That’s a big step, Admiral. Are we sure the Marines can get in and out undetected?”
Gen. Joyce spoke up. “There are no guarantees with this sort of thing, ma’am. Nonetheless, those marines are the best at what they do. I have every confidence in their ability to complete the mission.”
Rebecca was the first to admit that the reputation of the Force Reconnaissance Marines was second to none, but still... “I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that suggestion.”
Joyce answered for the military men. “We don’t see any other way to get the intelligence we need, ma’am,”
Rebecca was still unsure. But sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. After a thoughtful pause, she said, “Okay, General, Admiral. I bow to your superior knowledge on military matters. And your final request, Admiral?”
“This is more to prepare you for what may be coming than for immediate implementation, Madam President.”
Rebecca did not like the sound of this. “Stop beating about the bush, Admiral, and get on with it please.”
“Very well, ma’am. We must consider that there will be a requirement for a massive increase in the size of the Terran Defence Force in the near future. At present, we are little more than a coastguard and if, and I do say if, we are to face a conflict, we simply do not have the strength to fight more than a skirmish before our enemies, if they are of any significant force, brush aside our forces. The numbers are against us, Madam President. Our standing forces need to be increased, and these things take time. We have a solid core of experience to build on, but to build any sort of fighting force we need time and manpower and, to be blunt, the money to pay for it all.”